A duality result for moduli spaces of semistable sheaves supported on projective curves (Q991581)

Let \(\mathbb{P}^n\) be the projective space of dimension \(n\), over an algebraically closed field \(k\) of characteristic zero. Given integers \(r>0\) and \(\chi\), let \(\mathrm{M}_{\mathbb{P}^n}(r,\chi)\) be the moduli space of semistable sheaves on \(\mathbb{P}^n\) with Hilbert polynomial given by \(P(m)=rm+\chi\). Given a coherent sheaf \(\mathcal{F}\) with Hilbert polynomial \(P(m)=rm+\chi\) then \(r=r(\mathcal{F})\) is called the multiplicity of \(\mathcal{F}\) and \(\chi=\chi(\mathcal{F})=h^0(\mathcal{F})-h^1(\mathcal{F})\) is the Euler characteristic of \(\mathcal{F}\) (recall that, since \(P(m)\) has degree one, \(\mathcal{F}\) must have support of dimension \(1\)). The dual sheaf \(\mathcal{F}^{\mathrm{D}}\) of \(\mathcal{F}\) is defined by \(\mathcal{F}^{\mathrm{D}}=\mathcal{E}xt^1(\mathcal{F},\omega_{\mathbb{P}^n})\). In this paper, the author proves that the map taking \([\mathcal{F}]\in\mathrm{M}_{\mathbb{P}^n}(r,\chi)\) to \([\mathcal{F}^{\mathrm{D}}]\) yields an isomorphism between \(\mathrm{M}_{\mathbb{P}^n}(r,\chi)\) and \(\mathrm{M}_{\mathbb{P}^n}(r,-\chi)\). In order to do so, the author first shows that the map \([\mathcal{F}]\mapsto[\mathcal{F}^{\mathrm{D}}]\) is well-defined. First it is shown that, given that the Hilbert polynomial of \(\mathcal{F}\) is \(P(m)=rm+\chi\), then the Hilbert polynomial of \(\mathcal{F}^{\mathrm{D}}\) is \(rm-\chi\). This is proved by making use of the notion of a monad for \(\mathcal{F}\) i.e. a sequence \(0\to\mathcal{C}^{-p}\to\cdots\to\mathcal{C}^0\to\cdots\to\mathcal{C}^p\to 0\) of sheaves, which is exact, except at \(\mathcal{C}^0\), where the cohomology if \(\mathcal{F}\). Then, it is proved that \(\mathcal{F}\) is semistable if and only if \(\mathcal{F}^{\mathrm{D}}\) is semistable, and also that the map \([\mathcal{F}]\mapsto[\mathcal{F}^{\mathrm{D}}]\) is well-defined in \(S\)-equivalence classes. Finally, the author shows that the map \([\mathcal{F}]\mapsto[\mathcal{F}^{\mathrm{D}}]\) is a morphism, by showing that these constructions also work in families and by using the good quotient moduli properties of \(\mathrm{M}_{\mathbb{P}^n}(r,\chi)\). The second part of the paper is devoted to the application of the above duality result to the following situation. Suppose that \(\mathrm{M}_{\mathbb{P}^n}(r,\chi)\) is the quotient of a certain parameter space by the action of an algebraic group. Then the duality result can be used to find a ``dual'' parameter space and a ``dual'' group such that \(\mathrm{M}_{\mathbb{P}^n}(r,-\chi)\) is the corresponding quotient. Special attention is given to the cases where the parameter space parametrizes monads for which the corresponding sheaf is semistable.